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The Varsoon Collection, Volume 5 - The War of Plagues (House Item)
}} Book Text This book is titled "The Varsoon Collection, Volume 5 - The War of Plagues." It is a complete volume that details the War of Plagues and the return of Varsoon. The following compilation is a brief presentation of the legends and myths of the mage, Valdoartus Varsoon, known to many simply as Varsoon. Much work was done to separate the facts from the fiction in order to bring this work to you, the reader. The final volume in the series, this book speculates about the rumors of his return from death. The story of Varsoon does not end simply with his death many hundreds of years ago. During the War of Plagues, there were many reported rumors of a mysterious mage that led the Bloodsabers, a group of cultists devoted to the worship of the god of disease, Bertoxxulous. The cult is reported to have existed for many hundreds of years, but one day came out of hiding to lay waste to Qeynos during the time of King Antonius Bayle V. The War of Plagues raged across the land for a number of years, with neither side gaining ground. Using tactics reserved for only the depraved, the Bloodsabers, under orders of their leader, contaminated the city's water supply. Thousands of innocent people died during the war, and most of the atrocities were blamed on a mage the Bloodsabers called "The Undying." "The Undying" was seen at the head of their armies, raining down upon the soldiers of Qeynos all manner of blights. From locusts to oozing miasmas, the Undying was a formidable mage. It didn't take too long for some people to claim that this mage was Varsoon returned to life. Using the fear that came with the name Varsoon, the mage began calling himself Varsoon the Undying. His demands against Qeynos were for them to hand over every second child that lived in the city. It seems there was some type of dissension among the Bloodsabers over this demand, which allowed Qeynosian soldiers to gain the upperhand. Soon enough, after a massive battle, Qeynos defeated the Bloodsabers once and for all. Unfortunately, they were never able to find Varsoon the Undying after the battle. There are hidden records, however, that we had the privilege of reading. These records tell of a mage's body being found on the battlefield. The mage's body was covered in scar tissue from horrible burns to his entire body. The cause of death was not from fire, however. He had died from nothing more than a simple arrow piercing his heart. Or so they thought, until they noticed that he was still breathing. A priest of the Temple of Life was with the party that discovered the body. Being a high-ranking exarch, he knew this man was no ordinary undead soldier. The priest summoned several of his brethren to the body and began to perform a very intricate ritual over the body. After several hours, the priests had completed their spells and proceeded to burn the body of the mage until it was nothing than ashes. Rather than letting the ashes be scattered to the four winds, they gathered them into a special container and carried them to a special crypt in the Qeynos Hills. When asked what the ceremony was all about, they explained that it is the only way to prevent a lich from returning to life. To this day that crypt remains locked, so we have no way of confirming whether or not the lich those priests destroyed was the same Varsoon from centuries earlier. Were this the case, it would appear that Varsoon actually did achieve immortality after all. But it does not explain why the word "lich" was never attributed to him until that final account. We thank you for reading this series. As the reader can tell, there are not many solid facts about the real history of Varsoon. Perhaps if the House of Varsoon had not been burned to the ground so many centuries ago we might have been able to find more facts there. Whether more information comes to light in the future, the fact remains that Varsoon no longer walks among the living. Norrath has been safe from his predations for hundreds of years, so we may at least take comfort in that as we lay down to sleep at night.